Prevalence of Malaria Among Children Attending AlFaw Teaching Hospital, El-Gedaref State, Sudan

Abstract

Introduction: In Sudan, malaria is still a major cause of death and the primary cause of death for children. A strategy for reducing and eradicating malaria may be developed with the help of knowledge regarding the prevalence of the disease among children. The goal of this study was to examine the prevalence of malaria in children at the AlFaw Teaching Hospital, as well as the risk factors and contributing factors. Methods: In this study, questionnaires were used to gather socioeconomic, demographic, and vector control data from the families of children aged 1 day to 17 years in order to detect Plasmodium falciparum and other spp. Age, gender, place of residence, usage of a vector control intervention, and mother’s educational degree are all associated with malaria positivity. Results: During June through July 2022, 400 children who visited AlFaw teaching hospital participated in a facility-based crosssectional survey. P. falciparum species made up 279 of the Plasmodium species (70%), and other species consisted of 121 (30%). Children who regularly spend the night outside and those who live in homes with stagnant water in the complex had higher probabilities of contracting malaria than those who regularly sleep under long-lasting insecticide-treated nets. Malaria diagnoses were more common in children of mothers with no formal education than in children of mothers with secondary education. Conclusion: Children who were patients at AlFaw teaching hospital had a significant malaria prevalence. In this study, a higher proportion of moderate parasitemia was also detected, and those with the highest prevalence of malaria were in the age group of 0–17 years. The main correlations with malaria were irregular usage of bed nets, night-out times, and parents not receiving malaria health education. To reduce the impact of malaria, the local government and other concerned organizations should put more emphasis on routine insecticide-treated net (ITN) use, infections linked to nighttime exposure to the outdoors, environmental management, and modification of attitudes toward malaria prevention and control through health education. Other actions that can be taken to decrease this impact include improving health management and planning, redistributing resources (including consultants) at the central and regional levels, and implementing appropriate training programs on the management of severe malaria at all levels.